Two and half minutes of excitement for the fifty minutes of waiting

The shadows had grown long and the fires were going out. The crowd died down. They began to lay down around the cooling fire. 

I woke myself up and went forward to move past the exhausted people. I stayed in the shadows and moved forward to catch up to the others. The quiet stillness was a bit unnerving compared to what just happened, all the uproarious flames, songs and dancing. What was the purpose of it all. There was none as far as I could tell, but perhaps the reason would become clear the farther in I went.

I caught up to Flo and Kooper on the far side of the cave. There was a gap and and bridge was hoisted high above on a pulley system that seemed to be constructed in a manner that seemed to be suicidal to even be considered good to cross. There was another ornate door on the other side of the gap. The door looked to be of similar design of the drake door that we passed to get into the cave.

Kooper wandered over to a series of complex levers and wheels.

“I think this is what we need to use to lower the bridge.” He said in a hoarse whisper. He was trying to remain quiet as not to wake the sleeping crowd. 

Both me and Flo went and tried to conceive the order that the levers needed to be pulled. They were rusted over and they were not well taken care of. The first lever pulled lowered the bridge just enough that it was just out of fingertip reach. It came down oddly quietly. There was no high-pitched screech that one would have expected from the disrepair that the metal was in. 

Flo and I moved over to the just out of reach bridge. I made a stair step with my knee and hands as to boost her up to the bridge. She clambered up on top of me and got on the rusted mess. The chains creaked and groaned with the addition of new weight on the old bridge. The sound was so loud that I thought for a moment that someone from the crowd would wake up and come over to investigate. None did. We three all breathed a sigh of relief. 

Flo’s added weight to the bridge lowered it just enough so that I jumped up and clutch onto the edge of the suspended metal. The metal creaked again and Flo helped me up without baited breath and as quick as we could we motioned for Kooper to join us. The bridge creaked a third time and a low, loud growl echoed around the cavern. We all froze in place. We all held our breath, not another sound was heard and an immediate cold sweat was felt across my entire body. 

Something big had awoken.

My eyes shot to where the bond fire was and the crowd that had danced and sung, there was nothing there. No trace of a fire or of people. The cavern looked as empty as if nothing was there. 

I caught Kooper’s eyes and I saw the fear of him that he might as well have been screaming to run. I turned on the bridge and Flo was already clearly on the other side. She slid off of the bridge and onto the ledge of the opposite side. The growl grew louder and the sound came from below. As I looked through the rusted bridge and down past my feet, I saw the source of the growl. Perhaps not the source, but definitely the direction. A light blue light came shooting up quickly. I had just enough wit to get off of the bridge following Florence. 

The rush of blue that engulfed the bridge was not a hot blast of air, but rather a freezing blast of air that inflated into the whole cave. The cave was covered in a layer of ice. The bridge that was suspended, was now encased in ice and attached by ice to both sides of the chasm. Not so much on the side of me and Flo, but a solid layer of ice covered Kooper’s side. Though I could not see or hear from Kooper I knew that something was terribly wrong when I did not hear from him. 

It began to snow as a sort of residual effect of the blast of ice. Flo shook me and said, “C’mon we need to push forward.”

“What about Kooper? He might still be there.”

It was then that the four cloaked figures made their way onto the icy floor and over to the wheel where Kooper had lowered the bridge. One of them gathered something bright and stowed it into a leather pouch that was hanging by his side. It was with that stowage of bright light that I knew Kooper was gone. He had died encased in ice. 

The cloaked figures followed still, there on the icy bridge they stood and waited for us to go. I stood up and moved forward. I offered my hand to Flo. She took it and stood up. I twisted the door knob and with a mighty shove I broke open the iced door and to no surprise at all, there was another descending staircase. This one was covered in ice so it was more like a slide than stairs. 

There was a small sign next to the slide and in big bold print it read:

    BYPASS THE LINE 

I nudged Flo and shone my light on to it and showed her. Those words were a curse that I wish that I had never heard of. For they had decimated two good men that would never reap the reward that they sought. No reward was worth losing your life for. 

One of the cloaks pointed down the slide. It was telling me to continue. I am not sure what the actual objective was anymore, but I was determined to continue on. I moved forward and felt the slickness of the slide. It was very slick. 

Almost under my breath, I uttered the words. “Will I survive?”

“Your time has not come yet.” One of the cloaks said behind me. “You go old. That is why we chose you to go. To be our physical presence.”

“Florence, I want you to go back and get back to Lance. I don’t want to lose you too.”

“That is not going to happen as long as we do the rest of this together. How much more could there possibly be?”

I nodded to her and looked slightly past her and the cloaks had disappeared once again. But I knew that they were still there, even If I could not see them. 

“Well let’s take it as slow as we can, those stairs are pretty slick.” I looked around the area to see if there was anything that could so our descent. The recent burst of ice denied us access to anything that might be used. After looking around for three or four minutes, I told her that I would go first and that she should follow after I gave the all clear for her to descend.

The ice on the top stair had to be at least an inch thick. I sat down and felt chills run up my spine. It was kind of nice being told that I would die old, it was sort of freeing as I knew that I would not die here. That is if I was to believe supernatural beings that only I could see. OK, maybe not the most convincing idea that I had ever had, but it was a comfort at this moment to know that.

Right after I started sliding down, I knew that this was a bad idea. But there was nothing else that I could have done, so I screamed until my throat went hoarse. I slid for what seemed like miles, my eyes were shut tight and I couldn’t breathe, but that probably had something to do with me screaming.

“Hey! Hey!” I could swear Flo trying to get my attention. I opened my eyes and looked to see that I had stopped sliding and that my feet were on a stone wall. I leaned back and saw Flo, she had a bemused smile on her face. I felt rather foolish, and quickly stood up. 

“It’s clear to come on down.” I said trying to hide my embarrassment. She slid down to me and stood up quickly. Though I could not see her face I knew that she had a small smile on her face. 

She was the first through the door. The iciness of the stairs abruptly stopped and I could once again fell cold gravel underneath my feet. 

This room was big and furnished. Not a cavern like the last one, but it had a sort of warmth and comfort set about it. For big metallic cellar doors lined the back of the room. And a sign of something was posted above all of the doors. It read:

BYPASS THE LINE

all you weary Travellers Under the stone that seek Riches and life read well and understaNd. life is As pRecious as a gOlden box. ThoUgh you toil and seek riches it is your life that you should truly treasure for there is only oNe of you in the entire worlD. you Are the most uNderrated anD undervalued treasures in existence, you are probably underwheLmed by thIs message. So one more trial will proVe your worth to the bEings that brought you here. choose a door and exit this place, and live your life. The door will not be an easy one to choose, in fact the correct door will be the most difficult.

We both looked at it for a time. The message was philosophy jargon and more like a fortune cookie than a fortune. 

“Who would go to all this trouble to conduct this whole little sharade?” Florence asked, looking just as puzzled and confused as me.

“I think that if there was a treasure it was used to create this place.” I answered.

A high-pitched laugh was heard from behind us. It was perhaps the most unusual sound that could have been heard in that place. I turned to look to see what had made the noise and saw the Landlady and Lance. The woman had a revolver trained to Lance’s back.

“That is only half true.” Abigail said. “Though it took a sizable fortune to hollow out the formation and make it impenetrable, there is still more of the McClung treasure to be had.”

Florence moved behind me and asked, “How would you know that? Aren’t you just a landlady?”

“Not just a landlady, dear, my full name is Abigail McClung. The last of my line and the last with the knowledge of this place that is known. There is a vast treasure hidden away here. And though I have sent many people down here searching for it none have returned. So I wagered everything I had on one last venture, even my title and lordship. I had hoped that expert treasure hunters might be able to fix the mystery, but I suppose that I was wrong.”

“Lady, you are crazy!” Lance said. Abigail pushed him in the small of his back toward the cellar doors. She motioned with the gun that Flo and I should do the same.

We followed her directions. She had us all line up at different doors. 

“Now this is where it gets tricky,” She said. “Down one of these passages is the treasure that I have been waiting for.” 

“If we do find your treasure, how do you get it?” I asked. 

“My husband is down at the bottom of the ravine waiting with a shotgun in hand at the exits. That treasure will finally be mine.”

As I approached my set of steel doors, I looked toward the others. Flo was closest to me and she looked scared. Me and Lance shared a glance and he had a glint that I followed almost immediately. He turned and tried to rush the elderly woman, she showed no hesitation and shot Lance straight through the heart. He fell over in a clump and she raised her gun toward me.

“One more treasure hunter down and one more to go. Take your chances being faster than my trigger finger or go into the cellar.” 

It was at that point that I saw the four cloaks enter the room. This would be the last time that I saw or heard them.

They entered silently, but they decloaked when all four were in the room. Their pale figures seemed to radiate with a pale glow. They were armed and though I could not always see their weapons while their cloaks were on, I could see them now. Sword and shield, Spear, Daggers, Bow and arrows. They were not weak by any means, Their bodies rippled with muscles and they were taunt. 

Flo stood behind me. She placed her hands on my shoulders. She stifled her breath as if she could see the four warriors that stood behind the woman.

“Can you see them?” I tried to whisper to Flo, but my words came out hoarse, most likely due to my screaming earlier. I felt her chin move up and down on my back. 

“See who?” The old woman asked incredulously. 

“See us.” The warrior that was closest to her said. This was the one that wielded a spear. His voice was not a whisper, but was deep and full of strength and power.

Abigail looked stricken as if she had heard a ghost from a former life. She slowly turned and saw the warriors for the first time. She dropped the gun and it clattered on the floor. 

“The last of the McClung’s. A long time to hide from us. Yet you have forgotten why you built this place. Did you ever wonder why you made this room with four doors, yet you only sent people down here one or two at a time.”

Abigail stammered, but no words came out. 

“The tunnels were made for us when you were ready to leave. You were to meet us here so that we might escort you to your true home.”

“Where is that?” I said as I seemed to be the only one capable of making words anymore.

The one that wielded the bow and arrow answered, “To the ninth circle these days. For she has betrayed all that have come seeking a treasure that was never hers to receive. It was yours.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, my words gained strength the longer I talked with them. I was not very afraid of them anymore

“The pit of hell has many layers.” The one with daggers spoke now. “The coldest of them is the one meant for betrayers. Those that would see friends and family burn for their ambitions. Leading strangers to certain damnation. This place as cold as it is, is a shortcut to the end of her road. And it is the place we are supposed to guard.”

“There is a bounty that we placed out for the one that helped us find her. I believe that our treasure will be of use to you at the end.” The one that held the sword and shield was the last to speak. ”We have prepared it for you. And we are sorry that it had such a price for it.”

He handed me a small golden box with a hinged lid and a knob on top. I opened the box to find four blue, tear shaped jewels that glowed faintly in the dark.

“Keep them safe and with you always.” They all said this at once. 

And with one last blast of cold air, they left with Abigail in tow. The cellar doors opened and closed and were sealed shut so that no man could ever open them again.

Epilogue

Florence and I made our way back up the twisty winding castle. The path was laid out more clearly and the ice had disappeared. The bond fire room was empty and the people had not returned. The drake door was solid and heavy but still opened with ease. When we got back to the livable space of the castle, we saw that the old man had not moved from his chair. I checked his pulse and he was cold, very cold. He could have been dead for days as cold as he was.

We made our way to the small village and phoned for the police to come and investigate the castle. We made sure to mention that both Kooper and Lance had died due to the actions of Abigail McClung. The investigation that was carried out all over the castle grounds revealed that there were at least fifty-three different bodies scattered all around the grounds and down in the dungeons. 

The woman had made her living through killing others. 

The man in the chair wasn’t even her husband. It was an elderly man that had wandered away from his home some weeks ago. 

There were things that were delved into the realm of the supernatural, that much I know for certain. The cloaked warriors, the celebraters among the bond fire, the icy blasts of air, the jewels that no broker has ever seen, so much of the odds and ends of the journey. 

We turned the golden box into the curator of the museum and we received the reward of lordship. There was a small bit of irony because the land that was given was the same land that Abigail claimed that she was the lady of. 

Flo declined her title and retired from the business of treasure hunting. She decided that she would live in the nearby village and she became a florist. I took two of the angel jewels and had a pair of earrings made for her. A sort of reminder of the last adventure that we had.

As for me, I sealed up the castle and considered it condemned, not worthy of any sort of living. I live in the nearby village and I took up the weight of lordship. It is not a heavy title as I let most of the people do what they want. 

It is only on extremely cold nights that I take up any sort of watch. For I sense that cold vengeance of betrayal lies near that horrible castle. I keep watch and pray that the windows of that place stay unlit.

P.S.

Bypass the line

And may you keep them safe until Judgement day.